Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.

Sunday, August 28, 2016

Nobody knows if lab meat is safe

In a few years’ time, it should be possible to find a juicy
hamburger and creamy shake made from lab-grown beef and milk.

But before we can consume them, someone’s going to have to tell
us they’re okay to put into our mouths.

Startups and university researchers are swiftly rattling toward
the realization of lab-made food, growing meat and dairy products
without a single animal in sight.

A team from Maastricht University already showed off a burger cultured from a
cow’s muscle cells in 2013. (In tests, it was claimed to be
almost like the real thing, if “surprisingly crunchy.”)

Now, startups like Memphis Meats, SuperMeat, and Mosa Meat are racing to create fake flesh grown
from cells by as soon as 2021. Some companies, such as Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, are using soy protein and
other vegetable substitutes to similar ends. And Perfect
Dayhopes to have cow-free milk, brewed using yeast, on the
breakfast table by the end of next year.

But, as Science points out, the techniques used to
create these products may fall between regulatory cracks. The U.S.
Department of Agriculture looks after the real meat, dairy, and
eggs we currently consume. The Food and Drug Administration,
meanwhile, monitors food additives and products made from human
cells. But currently there’s no oversight for vetting the
technology used to create most lab-grown food—though the White House and National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and
Medicine are now working on it.